Process of treating cream for butter making



Patented May 31, 1938 PROCESS OF TREATING CREAM FOR BUTTER MAKING Harold Eugene Kistner, Sabetha, Kans.

No Drawing. Application July 31, 1934,

Serial No. 737,812

2 Claims,

This invention relates to a process of treating cream and the general object is to provide means for bleaching cream whereby the deep yellow color of certain kinds of butter is greatly reduced or eliminated,-this deep yellow color being extremely distasteful to many users.

My process is based on the fact that carotin, which is the principal coloring matter of butter, is de-colorized or bleached by the addition thereto of a gas such as hydrogen or carbon dioxide, carotin losing its color on the introduction of sixteen atoms of hydrogen, for instance, to the molecule.

In carrying out my process with sweet cream I pass the cream through a tube, containing finely divided platinum black, copper, iron, nickel, or other heavy metallic catalyzers of likeadsorptive power, tho platinum black is preferred as it does not re-act with the chemical elements found in the cream. Prior to the submission of the cream to the action of the catalyzing element or simultaneously therewith, I introduce into the cream carbon dioxide, hydrogen, oxygen, or other gases which will react with the carotin. Instead of this process as above outlined, I may treat the cream, into which hydrogen or carbon dioxide has been formed or introduced, with ultra violet light which acts as a catlytic agent, this treatment being carried on for a period of time depending upon the consisten'cyof the cream and its volume. In either case the gas re-acts and combines with the carotin of the cream so as to cause lightening of the color present.

Sour cream may be treated by first neutraliz-,

ing the cream, as by carbonate of soda, which produces carbon dioxide, and the carbon dioxide so produced will re-act with the carotin or other yellow pigments in the presence of a catalyzing agent such as finely divided metals heretofore stated, or ultra violet light.

Hydrogen or other gases may be used, but I prefer to use carbon dioxide because of the natural carbon dioxide content of the cream. Carbon dioxide seems to have a great tendency to combine with the carotin since only small amounts are required to perform the reaction.

Another advantage in using carbon dioxide is that it does not re-act with the other fatty materials of the butter while other gases are liable to cause rancidity in the butter made from the cream or otherwise change the composition of the butter. 7

Upon churning cream so treated, the butter will be much lighter in color than butter from untreated cream, the product being not unlike the normally light colored butter of the winter months produced from sun-cured forage, in which this re-action has taken place in the foragefbefore being eaten. Butter produced in accordance with my invention does not have the peculiar gray color characteristic of butter to which a green pigment has been added to cover up the high color, which pigment absorbs. most of the light, making it apparently gray. In contrast, butter treated in accordance with my in- 10 'vention appears more nearly white. It will be noted that it is not necessary to use ultra violet light as a catalytic agent, but that any catalytic agent which has'the power of producing conditions which will cause'the gases. to combine with the carotin found in butter, may be used. In this respect this invention difiers from other irradiation processes, the irradiation by ultra-violet light, in this present casebei'ng only one of several means of producing a butter product light in color and which has essentially the same color consistency of butter produced during the winter months while the dairy herd are living on cured forage.

While I have heretofore referred to the irradiation of cream by the use of ultra violet light, the ultra violet light being used as a catalytic agent, it is to be understood that I may use the solar spectrum for this purpose, the process of photo-syntheses and bleaching being carried on in sunlight as in nature.

It is to be further understood that this product may be produced within the purview of my invention by any catalytic agent which possesses like powers in the adsorption or production of gases which Will combine with the carotin or other yellow pigments found in natural butter. Such catalytic agents are, in addition to platinum, copper, iron, and nickel, cobalt and charcoal;

The tube or like element which contains the finely divided platinum black or other catalytic agent, may be made of chrome steel as this does not readily re-act with the cream when sour. 'The tube, however, might be made of glass or 45 of quartz where ultra violet light is to be used as a catalytic agent. Any other suitable irradie ation apparatus might be used such as an arc lamp in the center of a cylinder, with cream running down the cylinder on the inside thereof 5 and thus passing in a very thin sheet over the inner surface of the cylinder while the ultra violet rays reach every small particle of it as it passes by.

Any apparatus which will contain the finely 55 '10 i sure or with a vacuum.

divided catalytic agent such as copper, platinum,

etc. may be used providedit will allow the cream to filter through the catalytic agent and thus be brought into intimate contact therewith; This might befin the-form of-a vat ,or tankusing a relatively deep layer of. granular catalytic 'material with charcoal or gravel below and the cream being passed downward throughthis bed or catalytic material and through the charcoal? Such an apparatus might be used either under pres- I have found that the amount oif carbon d1} oxidewhich will be taken up :by the cream at r atmospheric pressure on the cream being agitated while the gas is being introduced is amplygsuir ficient for; the purpose of treating the cream.

The catalytic 'materials are very' eflici'ent ;ar 1'd ;it takes only a relatively small amount of these materials to produce the re-action. Whenultra? violet raysareused .these will complete the reactionwhile the cream is passing fdown the side of thetube or cylinder asimentioned'above. V V

In bleaching the carotin of butterfahit must be remembered that the :reaction takes place' Within the lfatglobule; Itjhas been knownfor a long 'time that this bleaching icould be accompli'shed by 'stron'g foxidizing agents but under 7 thesecircurnstances the fattyimaterials,,which l are/also subject to oxidation, were acted upon so that it produced 'a rancid product, or in other w rds; ,a 1 p od t, th t; w n a ab s V b a h n a t o b "'sft qn px d a e 's caused a a lowy ecom j on z 'e bu e and; thisf tallowy decomposition produces- ;a productjwhich isnot salable. Thus, chlorine or yd e pe oxi e u av b c n la ent w l cause this 1tallow'y decomposition placed in the cream or butter in proportions which will bleach the pigments, but this method pr bleaching the, a

butter has never been practically used because it will ruin the butter. ,1 have discovered that by the use of a catalyst agent and by the use of certain specified gases;'I cansecure a hurried or 7 rapid reaction which affects thercarotin within 7 the fat 'globuleand which bleaches the carotin' without the attendant evils present in theslower' process of natural oxidatiomwhich natural oxi:

dation will cause an oxidation of the fatty mate rials also. In all my experiments leading up to [this present invention,vI have neverfound any noticeable traces oi-oxidation of these fatty imaduce the desired color change without any tallowy decomposition which is present where other processes are used. 'I prefer to use'finely vdividedjplati'n'llm as the catalyst agent, since platidoes' not react with the materials of the creamand the cream in passing over it contacts with a maximum of surface so that the reaction is'very rapid within the ffatiglobule but without ap reciably aficftmgm anyway the-fatty mate rials. As soon as the ream is passed'onbeyohd theplatinum, tlie ion is stopped. 1 also prefer to use carbo dioxide '01- hydrogen since these gases will' infg, w1 1'ih ihcludesjsubjecting the cream, idth'e' presence of a icatalytic 'adsorbent,to the action of carbon dioxide g'as to therebyeffect the bleaching ofthe carotih in the creamp- I r not reactiwimthe free fatty tags.

iter a1s when my present process is used. I pro- 7 1. A r cessor treating crea for beta mar;

2. A process of treating cream for butter-mak ing which includes subjecting the cream in the presence of fin'elydivi'ded platin'um as; a catalyst;

to the actionof carbon. dioxide tothereby effect th''blleachiiig'of the carotinfinthe cream.

HAROLD EUGENE' KISTNIERQ 

